1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control apparatus, a print control method, and a medium used in a document processing system that provides a function for editing document data generated by a document processing program, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as a speed and an image quality become higher in electrophotographic printing apparatuses and ink jet printing apparatuses, a print on demand (POD) market is growing. Such a POD market can strive to handle a large number of prints and jobs in a short period of time without utilizing a complicated large-scale apparatus or system. Accordingly, the POD market can make the maximum use of a digital image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine and a digital multifunctional peripheral. In the POD market, digital printing using electronic data is implemented, and a management and a control utilizing a computer have been more widely used than in the conventional printing industry. In the POD market, original data is received from a customer and an output process is performed according to the received original data.
Furthermore, in the POD market, there is a case in which an order is received from a user for producing a book based on original data. In this case, the received original data is output and bookbinding processing is performed as post-printing processing. In this regard, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-155152 discusses a method for performing processing ranging from image forming to gluing bookbinding with a single image forming apparatus.
Moreover, as one form of performing bookbinding processing, case book binding is known in which bookbinding processing is performed by wrapping an output result of a text with an output result of a cover. In performing case book binding, a cover includes a spine width area. In this regard, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-151734 discusses a method in which a font size or an image is magnified or reduced according to the size of a spine width area to perform drawing processing on a spine.
However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-155152 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-151734 do not discuss any layout processing of a cover.
In addition, in the above-described case book binding, a spine area exists. The size of a spine differs according to original data that is input and, thus, cannot be uniformly determined. More specifically, the spine size varies according to the number of pages of a text and a recording medium that is used. Accordingly, when case book binding is set to be used as bookbinding processing, it is necessary to perform cover layout processing with a spine size taken into consideration. Thus, an operator is required to perform processing for determining a layout of a cover every time original data is input.
Furthermore, in the POD market, output processing is performed according to original data input by a customer, and thus different customers can send different forms of original data. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 29B, original data to which imposition processing for a cover is previously performed as an original data arrangement 2913 can be received. In another case, as illustrated in FIG. 29A, original data to which imposition processing for a cover is not previously performed as an original data arrangement 2901 can be received. In such cases, an operator is required to confirm received original data and to perform output processing without changing the order of page data or to perform processing for changing the order of page data and determining an area in which a page is laid out on a page-by-page basis. Thus, the operator is required to perform different processing depending on original data.
As described above, in a case where case book binding is set as bookbinding processing, an operator is required to spend a lot of labor and time in performing processing for determining a layout of a cover.